Days of Our Lives, past and present

My name is Eric …

“… and I have a problem. Rushed stories and underdeveloped character motivation .” (Breaks down sobbing.)

“Hi, Eric.”

Poor guy. Jen and Lucas drag him to a meeting, tell him he can sit in the back, and then the first thing Lucas does is point him out to everyone and ask him to say a few words.

Why is everyone sure that Eric is an alcoholic anyway? People drive drunk who aren’t necessarily alcoholics. Nicole and Daniel had reason to believe he had a problem, but everyone else seems to just be assuming he is. This might seem like nitpicking, given the many other plot and motivation holes I could complain about, but mostly I am begging someone, anyone, to ask Eric what it was he was so upset about — for months! — that was making him drink heavily. (IT WAS NICOLE.)

That said, I enjoyed these scenes. Lucas has been used really well here. And they mitigated (a little) the silliness of Jen’s immediate addiction by having Eric’s suspicion be based on the fact that she was concealing taking the pills, not just that she was taking them.

And even though the show has been practically screaming at us that Jen is an ADDICT ADDICT ADDICT, she sounded quite reasonable when she pushed back, saying he couldn’t equate his drinking with her taking a prescribed medication for an injury. And then a great line: that it was an injury from an accident that he caused.

I enjoyed very much seeing Jennifer be a little feisty. I like that she is eager and willing to help Eric, but she isn’t going to take anything lying down. And I love seeing Eric be wrong, to struggle a little bit, to be too proud and stubborn to accept her help. We can see the underlying desperation, too, how much he wants to grab onto the lifeline she’s offering. Greg is doing such a great job with this.

I continue to be seriously underwhelmed by anything involving Hope, Rafe, Ciara, or Chase. But Kyler Pettis was terrific showing Theo’s hurt and anger. He managed to give the storyline a little emotional resonance, which I didn’t get from any of the other players. (Hope, especially, was mildly concerned about the whole situation for about two seconds, then put the whole thing out of her mind in order to exchange flirty banter with Rafe.)

I can’t get too excited about the “Chabby move into the Dimera mansion” plot either, though I do think it has potential. Kate and Billy were as cute as could be today, in these proposal scenes:

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9 thoughts on “My name is Eric …”

I NEVER thought I would say this but my reaction to yesterday’s show can be summed up in one sentence – “Thank God Steve and Kayla aren’t on!” That is sad.

When I think I found alcoholism I tend to think addiction and we certainly hadn’t seen enough of Eric drinking to think that he couldn’t stop drinking if he wanted to. But we have seen him abusing alcohol and using it to escape from him his problems. And his abuse of alcohol was somewhat set up as a pattern so I guess you can equate that pattern to alcoholism. But again it feels half-assed. We needed more set up to fully make that connection and we certainly needed proof that Jennifer and Lucas have seen his alcohol abuse more than once to make that leap.

I am not sure where they are going with this Ciara, Theo, Chase stuff at this point and I am not sure I care. So far every response seems like the most predictable option so it isn’t resonating with me.

I can’t believe how badly this reveal has been bungled, of Chase as the bully. To me it doesn’t even follow that being jealous of Theo would make him do that. It just made Ciara want to protect Theo, and bound her closer to him. So fanwanking his motivation is kind of impossible for me here. And Ciara and Hope actually are underreacting (Hope especially!). Ciara saying Theo should forgive Chase — even for his (Theo’s) sake — doesn’t sit well with me. She should be more indignant on his behalf. Anyway, the bottom line is that none of it is working — except Kyler Pettis.

I totally agree about the half-assed aspects of the “Eric is an alcoholic” story. But it’s comparatively better than anything else, and was definitely the story that worked best for me yesterday.

Greg Vaughan is a joy to watch…what he has been able to bring to the role of Eric Brady is nothing short of amazing….especially given the writing over the last year. Greg can squeeze every last smidgen of empathy, tears, pain from Eric and from his audience. ..I would call that TALENT💛

I could co-sign just about every word of this post. I love Lucas being incorporated into Eric’s story, and I’m finding the Jen/Eric interactions very… alive and surprisingly nuanced. But yeah, is Eric an alcoholic? I think they could’ve walked the tightrope a little more by having Lucas explain that AA meetings could be helpful even if someone is using alcohol to numb out the world, even if s/he doesn’t necessarily have a chemical addiction, etc. — it’s a way of putting things into perspective again. And it was typical Days idiocy that Lucas began the meeting with “LOOK AT THE NEW GUY, BTW HERE’S HIS SOCIAL SECURITY NUMBER!!!”

Kyler Pettis did really well with Theo’s confrontation of Chase. He impressed me there. I’m just so tired of Hope being in these scenes with Rafe constantly. Go talk to Julie! Or Jen! Or Shawn! Literally anyone else.

Yes, that’s what I want: a recognition that it’s not just “alcoholism” full stop, it’s figuring out that you were drinking to cope with problems. That might actually involve talking about what those problems were, though, and God knows we don’t want that.

As someone who felt open to Rafe and Hope, I totally agree. Feels totally rushed and forced. And weirdly flirty and light given what is going on (multiple felonies).

I thought this episode was the best one in quite a while. I tried to just take the stories for what they were on screen and not focus too much on the plot inconsistencies that got us here. I also ignored that Jen was in an Alcoholics Anonymous meeting when she is not an alcoholic, but I digress…

The show felt more character-centered, overall. My favorite scenes might have been the J.J/ Abi ones where he was warning her again about Chad and concerned with her moving into the mansion. I love that sibling interaction between the two of them and as much as I adore Chad, J.J. isn’t wrong. I’m also enjoying watching impulsive Abi just following her heart. I hope we continue to see this play out between the two of them.

Theo is my favorite among the new crop of teens and I liked watching him struggle to understand how Chase could be so cruel. The actor who plays Chase did some pretty powerful work as well. I wish Ciara could step up to the plate because right now, she’s not justifying being the center of this triangle.

Finally, I know he’s so campy, but I found Andre really threatening yesterday. I liked the musical cues and the scene of him removing the bandage. I’m ready for him to make a big move against Hope and Rafe.

I really liked Abby’s scenes with Theo and JJ. That was a nice change because I’ve complained before that Abby is All About Chad, no matter what is going on with her family. When Paige died, when Jen had her accident, Abby seemed pretty disconnected.

I’d like to hear from Chad about why he wants to move into the mansion. It would make more sense to me if he knew Stefano was dead. If he thinks he’s alive, why would he assume he isn’t coming back? He always comes back! But if he knew Stefano was dead, it would make sense for him to say the Dimera name, the Dimera house is in different hands now. Not letting Andre be the Dimera heir.

Andre is super campy, but that’s part of what I love about him. I want to see him interact with more people and actually have a little more power and threat. He seems so weak right now. I do see potential with him knowing Hope killed Stefano but being unable to prove it.